Episode 1： Raising concerns about Pope Francis is hard, but essential. Here's why...
Episode Stats
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Summary
In this episode, we begin a series laying out the hard evidence for our concerns with Pope Francis. We also discuss the importance of correcting the Pope publicly when necessary, and why Catholics need to do so in order to protect their own credibility.
Transcript
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Hello, and welcome to the John Henry Weston Show.
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This will be a weekly show to run every Tuesday, in which I will offer commentary on the most
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important news developments in the Church and culture.
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We are beginning with a series laying out the hard evidence for our concerns with Pope
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The show is available on the John Henry Weston Show YouTube channel and on my LifeSite blog.
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We've created a special email list for the show so that we can notify you every week
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Please sign up now by clicking the link below, and you can also subscribe to the YouTube channel,
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and you'll be notified by YouTube when there's any new content.
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Hi, I'm John Henry Weston, co-founder and editor-in-chief of LifeSite News.
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For the past six years, LifeSite has been experiencing many difficulties in our reporting on what's
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For some 22 years now, we've reported on the Vatican, and especially the statements
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of the popes, focusing mostly on life and family.
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With John Paul II and Pope Benedict, it was relatively easy.
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Since they would say so many pro-life and pro-family things, it was a joy to report.
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It was a real encouragement, too, for pro-life leaders around the world to hear the words
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of the popes who it seemed really had your back, even when sometimes your local bishops
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But things changed with the election of Pope Francis.
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After a year of trying to explain away his confusing statements, and sometimes statements
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that went directly against his two predecessors, we knew at LifeSite we had to just report straight
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what was happening, and let people know what was going on.
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Faithful Catholics need to understand the severity of the situation so that they can pray like
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never before for the crisis in the Church, pray and fast, and take action.
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When we started to do this, however, we noticed that some of our most loyal followers, in
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fact, some of my own friends and family, started to question what we were doing.
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As if after so many years of faithful, truthful reporting, we were starting to make things
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I have to tell you how distressing it was, and still is.
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I have often wished that, with some of my friends and family, I could sit down with them and
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And that was actually the genesis of the video series that I'm about to launch tomorrow.
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The evidence for our concerns with Pope Francis speaks for itself.
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Most of his controversial statements are made in front of cameras, and so we've pulled the
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footage, and translated it, and pulled the Vatican's own transcripts of them, so we can
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It is totally understandable that the faithful want to show allegiance to the Pope, and in
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this day and age of fake news in the mainstream media, mistrusting a news agency, well, that's
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But we pray that the evidence speaks for itself.
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Catholics believe that the Pope is infallible, but not with everything he says or does.
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Only in specific cases where he is explicitly defining doctrine pertaining to the faith and
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And with regard to confronting the Pope, even publicly, we have the example of that right
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from the beginning of the Church, the first Pope, St. Peter.
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Remember the account from Galatians 2 when St. Paul confronted Pope St. Peter over Peter's
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refusal to eat with uncircumcised Gentile Christians, and he would only eat with Jewish Christians?
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St. Paul recounts that he opposed Pope St. Peter to the faith, because he was in the
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wrong, and St. Paul also notes that he did so publicly.
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The Church's greatest doctor of the faith has also commented on the need to carry on with
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this tradition of correcting the Pope when needed.
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If the faith were endangered, a subject ought to rebuke his prelate even publicly.
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Hence, Paul, who was Peter's subject, rebuked him in public on the account of the imminent
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As the gloss of St. Augustine says on Galatians 2.11,
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Peter gave an example to his superiors that if at any time they should happen to stray from
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the straight path, they should not disdain to be reproved by their subjects.
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Another important point to be made is that which was given to me by a good and holy bishop,
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His Excellency Athanasius Schneider of Astana in Kazakhstan.
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He teaches that the true friends of the Pope are those cardinals, bishops, and laymen
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who express their public concern about these very important issues,
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Bishop Schneider said that those who perform adulation of the Pope and deny the evidence
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that ambiguity in the Pope's teaching is causing confusion are not helping the Pope nor themselves
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Bishop Schneider quoted Melchior Cano, a famous Dominican bishop and theologian of the Council
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For us at LifeSite News, we come at this from a perspective we've taken on as a motto,
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We recognize that sometimes it's difficult to speak the truth, but out of love and sincere
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wish for the good of others, we must speak the truth even when it's unpopular.
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So too with Pope Francis, we love him and pray for him on a daily basis, both individually
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And we can't do as some have suggested and just keep our heads down and wait it out,
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And even more personally, our own children are being confused.
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And outside of him, there is only eternal hell.
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And that's why we do what we do at LifeSite News.
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There is no hatred or animosity here towards the Pope.
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There is a loving concern and willingness to confront even the Pope when it comes to errors
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We try our best to do so with respect and charity, but also with clarity.
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For LifeSite News, I'm John Henry Weston, and may God bless you.